More than 22.98 million Chinese people were affected by natural disasters in April and 73 people were killed or are still missing, according to a report by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The impact of natural disasters last month was slightly worse than average, said the report.

Natural disasters, mainly droughts, hailstorms and snow storms, hit 5.26 million hectares of farmland and destroyed 34,000 houses, with direct economic losses reaching 8 billion yuan (US$1.04 billion).

The report said drought has continued in some regions in April because the temperature in most regions of China was higher than normal.

Hailstorms hit southern China three times.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2007)